In order to know and love God we need also to know the truth about ourselves, and that begins with accepting our frailty and need of repentance, which is one reason why in many of our Churches we have the sign of the cross made on our foreheads in ash at the beginning of Lent. Ash is a sign of our need to repent and it also reminds us that we came from the dust of the earth and will return to dust.

Dust is the symbol of nothingness and something that is pretty meaningless, and just a speck in the universe. Is that really all God is saying to us when He passes judgement on us in the book of Genesis ?: 'In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread 'til you return to the ground, for out of it were you taken; you are dust and to dust you shall return.' No! This isn't all God says to us because the dust we are is mingled with the sign of the cross put on our foreheads in Baptism. The Son of God who died upon the cross became the dust that we are, and so filled it with glory. God has redeemed and transformed the nothingness, the commonplace, the meaningless, and that means that speck we are in the universe is destined for glory.

In Lent, relying on God's grace we try to follow Jesus more closely. And it is only as we grow into Him that we can genuinely grow towards each other. We recall our own unworthiness before God and acknowledge our constant need of His forgiveness, but let us also rejoice that while we came from the dust of the earth and will return to dust, God has made us to 'know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this life so that we may be happy with Him for ever in Heaven'. May Lent this year be a time when we let God do His work in us, His dust, through breathing more of His glory into our lives, so making us ready for that day when His work of glory will be completed in us, when we reach Him at our destination in heaven.

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Received on Tue Jan 20 15:28:51 2009